DIGRESSIONS OF A DOMINIE

Evening Star, Issue 16783, 11 July 1918, Page 6

DIGRESSIONS OF A DOMINIE

WILL NEW ZEALAND LEAD THE WAY? Britain has funked again. There is to be no compulsory day-tnnc education of adolescents during the period pf the war and for God, knows how many benighted years afterwards. An "as you were" period of del*y has been fixeu, but it is a minimum only. He would be a sanguine reformer, indeed, who could convince himself that the' Home Land will have found the necessary courage in a decade. No. We are a nation af shopkeepers still. In spite of the shocks of toe last four years, we have no capacity yet to build for to-morrow, Or must one. suggest quite bluntiy tfct while the people , are willing the .pur&g is not? Nothing was made .plainer to the nation and to the House than that the clauses which lay nearest to tho Minister's heart were those dealing with the rights of youth. "The principal evil," said Mx Fisher in effect, "which it is L>roposed to remedy under this Bill _ is that continued wastage of ability, of character, and of physique which at present is cur great social cancer. We hold that young people have a right to bo educated—all young people — and that youth Is Nature's allotted period." . '. , But it was all in vain. Labor was with him, learning, philauthrophy, and even the touching and desperate courage of the thousands of parents whose incomes this provision would reduce by half. Yet the clauses w«ra foredoomed from the start. It waa no secret in the provinces or the House that if manufacturers allowed the second reading they would attack tooth and claw in committee. The clauses went out. Youta wa« sacrificed to tiie cotton moloch of- Lancashire. We return to New Zealand. Evil is contagious. The same forces which winged Mr Fisher are at work already here. So far as the matter has yet come before, them, the employers may be said to bo hostile. The idea, we are told, is millinnial—even more so in the Dominion than in Britain, where, hours in general are long and laborers multitudinous and cheap. Apart, too, from tho check to industry, which in a young country, we are. told, ] would be ruinous, the additional burden on the taxpayers would be half a million at least. We have neilher buildings r.or j teachers, nor organisers, nor directors. We are bowed already with the debte of war. For 10. for §O, probably for a longer period still we shall have to proproduce and produce, and simplify and save, or we .shall pass body and soul to the moneylenders. And against practical arguments like that we have only a few fervent voices from tho wilderness crying passionatejy that unless a grain of wlieat fall into tho ground and die. there can be no golden harvest—national, material, or spiritual. * * * * * * * It is well, all the same, to avoid hysteria. It is better a long way to avoid misstatement of fact. True though it is that national education Jb like national agriculture—rewarding us a hundred-fold it we will only add the labor and the capital—it is not true that Britain's failure to realise this leaves her the solitary survivor of educational laissci faire. Enthusiasts speak often as if tho sole reason for insisting on this reform were the fact that Germany has had it for 40 yeais. But the blunt fact, so far, at least, as the present writer has been able to discover it, is that Germany had not reached this universal measure when war broke out—and is not likely to have passed it since, .'ihe was, and certainly is still, miles ahead of sleepy Britain, but she had still some considerable, hurdles to surmount before she could be entitled to the fearful admiration with which many were mistakenly regarding her. And if 'Mr Fisher's Bill had passed in full. Britain theoretically would suddenly hare led the world. j *##■**## 1 1-6 uutlt i ith n\ estit,Ttirg ' httl mi hu (ttn <n\ it Ins hem id i ri' m th -nine u ition 'plelln is In it Hi Lm lb le i le7islnti in in 1 i o\t tin i 1 'e 1 mpuc oidhinm" th ami ' n hi Uit i i t id hj nt t Stat l ; i a in J d i i h i 'i, it imi Jhj r l no 4 r\n i ui \ 1 <m i ill 111 l 11 j lr\ei s tin he it o '< t c nllt la turn lit if tin Fn *• in\ B i uia 1 In i d t il Uu tcnu j. (hi in i\ b omrt! i r ; r tir i i o m m t i i il m I i n n i e l'-i C i ( n i 1 tt' in it tl i vr *- ip in N \ al nd ' r\ — j ens n e 1 1/ en p I l 1 I 111 1 »l!) (I ire it til r) i p i t > lui up t ,kpii c It wit ml < t> i no e it(i n » hj <h i n f 1 » 1 "> uhj p \ r a i vt ipe 11 t, "<t i -. ' t\ ig l h(p K 1 hind lu r 1 ip r r d\ r r u 1 hi i ( r 1 1 lie tin n < { c liil'\ * *■ il i 1 ) i l il id r i(! ir it i tit r ' pa 1 i- in j it 7 I I < tun it coi fip i i < fm e 1 ntc i \ i lio nto nd pup' t O i i id fi i in 1 n 1 i r i 1 1 hj lei i i i i m t ' ' ■*. H pp nu l t ') e i t i I*' \ tool 'ir f'r \i 1 I mi ' tl ci t! t ! ft ! i n tp i i > hi i ir 1 m* l > \ man n i ' s t j T (- in ' 1 i i) i if th ( fit i a fnc tl 1 i inn\ i "-of. fi i th n hj 1 o i i i\rr \ i i'i r t' (bill i rm i v i c n hj in l r tia 1 f i hut ii il n r t wh c th i o 1 I i *t i r p i 1U \ i \ ' I i < n br " x it in 1 t In lu 1

Turn now to -tine ether arfvanexvi countries—saw t:> f»wilzerhi:d. Ameri a. and France In none is the'--- such a measuie «- Mr Fisher m lini in fn Swit/oiiand p'ndiap.--. in eritini din eli" s. th-e craft " hoiis .-r,. th-: mo.-t. etlicicM b. the voi].l ; Ivr .' l,\u ! .iii"" vi not univeisil an] comn.d nrv. I»i th.i ('j-ton oi" Z' idi, it i tni -, the pn-icr

i; b-mi'-l r..| ,) ly i , )p.-u-nct the -T.p'<»i>tiiio bbn-..'f, bt.f' t v relv.'i'-ri b'm {< i for) h-iuis v.e-kl. ,! h'a--.' for t-e hniol ,a.n-d 'jrnei t.l in-.tr-", tu.ri ff hj« 1 ila in hi? ''"ty he i. rot be 1 of k> n- 'int. But) tbc-e is !.v, fecial-'! Inv that T r ;n lis. over operating cntntHdsnri'y in --•!! cant-ic

In America—well, "the l-ifesi. of course, '« the. President's re r 'e"t fjvd«"r«< rtv nt of tlis principle for v-hVh ».,. Zenl't-.d Is now<TOTi+.---ndirwr. Putell-powerf nl and pivu.tioaJ thonidi the l*-;-?-? : '-.!'>nt. at the niortifr.t is. there is a bit? i.tdf, us we know, between enriorsimr a principle and rTonniljja.tinp: a lav,-. Of tho tswiw we may say as of German v and of f-'witzcr-lttwl—a.s, it reir-i- not, be fonrotfoii. we may say of "Britain as well—that mmpnkory dflyli'.'-ht is an aff-dr at present of private enterprise.-. In many of the ere at mi'way eomir-nir-:. for example, worksh"p and s-'-hool ere under one roof. The Five Piver': Khipb'-i'ding Compinv. of Oi'iney, ?\'-.ss.. h'tj m.-inped out careful ecr-r?w of e.wiirent'ce in.-'r'ie-tion in more than a dozen sneei.fie lines. G. Hoe and Ox. c\ ni-rhine-printiiijj ftvme. «>nd app?e'iticec out m -rh--">! dur-

in-:,' werkinT hours, and He?-'.'ie.-- r-a-.';~r!;>£]-!"? afc eveninc cnvis-s. And more or lets the ?\amo is to te said of. kiv. ihs Westin-ahonse Air brnke Conips-ny. of t-V Bel! Telephone Con.'ianv. <-f tiie V--!e T/Ock Compa.r.y, of. ;'n short, a dozen of tho«-e fnirors a.nd rrr-F-iviro'.is coir-ems whose reriutation .i]r-°f.'dv r.-er'd-wids.

In Fmnce. contra rv in s?en?."rd to rjop-,i-lar belief, there hes been a to ex<»H the trade schoil to a Tv-ei'timi nnapnroached in anv other cmntrv but Switzerland. Thet is to sav. while other n/it-'ons have renli c ed its n"ee«-eit,v .1= ,->n

adiunrt to practica 1 annr"nt''cr.-h : n. Fi:nc« theoretically favors the elimination of th--> first year or two in a f"ctorv in favor c>f a'course in nn industrial or art-s school. But not in France, any more than in the other countries passed under our hasty review, lm3 there ever been anvtHng like e'ornpuL«jTy.' universal, daylij:lit ir.stntction,

[ And, after all, for such measures of I private enterprise as wo have examined, ! it is not neeessarv to go out of New Zea- ! land. In Christchnrch about a year ago. and possibly iii other localities and other traded since, the master painters took the ibold step of packing off all apprentices ) once or twice a week to classes in the local School of Art. Fees, 1 think, were to be ! paid by the employers, and about half the instruction was* to be given during working hour.?. But if the example has been followed tho imitator-' have been , strangely silent. I And the opponents unfortunately have I not been. Whenever there has been a 1 move in favor of compulsory legislation there has been a protest from pome group of employers. It happened quite recently , when, in the same city of which we have been speaking, the Board of INTanaaera of the local Technical College made a deiimtr* beginning to develop a progressive public opinion. Immediately there was an official resolution by the executive of the Employers' Association in Wellington ronI tiemning the proposal to instruct during ' daylight hour?. And tlieve has been ro- | ported since from overseas the unfortunate J reactionary victory of Lancashire. If. coitkp then finally to this : F.-ioeat iona! ; bodies in ceneral insist in New Zealand on ! the principle which has'just been lejc-ded in Britain. The highest council of all in ' the Dominion declared for it the. week be- ; fore last. Organised Labor is favorable—;snd onrardswi'Capital linmistnkablv is not. | Whether New Zealand will again be a, 'social pioneer muv depend on the clergy j and ■ initiative of th« forces of progress dui'ins the next six months. If I is eager for «, world reputation his path |is day]!(Jit plain. ;